It's not like Percy was superstitious or anything, but sometimes things just fell into place. It'd been fate that Percy's dog had woken him up early that morning. As he stretched, cracking his back, the thought had come to him, he should go to work. And it was early, 5:30. That never happened. But hey he was a kid who needed money. He set his feet on the cold, wood floor from which he quickly retaliated. Being more cautious this time, he got off his bed and made his way over to his closet.

Pulling on his uniform, he wondered what he was doing. How had he gotten to be here? He wasn't sure. This job, he needed this job. It had appeared in the newspaper he read one day. Percy didn't seem like the guy who read the news, but his mother had taught him to keep up with what was going on in the world. The lady of the store, she instated everyone called her Grandma Jane, was the niece of a man named Rick. She had named the store after him when he had gotten killed on 9/11. Hence, the name, in blue letters, read "Uncle Rick". She was the sweetest lady and after ten minutes with Percy in his interview, she had hired him. He loved his job. The people were genuine and most of them came because they knew Jane. It wasn't super busy so Percy got to know the rest of the staff really well.

Jack, Jane's husband, was the comedian, and well, Percy would never admit it out loud, but he found it really sweet that they were Jack and Jane. Their grandson Beck, was a burly guy on the football team at his high school. He and Percy got along really well even though they were four years apart. Then there was Kate and Jace, they were Beck's cousins. They were twins and they loved to scare Percy when he came into work. He thought it was funny, even though they got him every time. It really was a family owned shop. Sometimes Percy felt like he was intruding on family bonding stuff. Each time he had confided this with Grandma Jane, she had laughed, ruffled his hair, given him a lollipop and said, "There is plenty of room in this family." Percy pulled himself out of memory land and walked downstairs to get some breakfast.

The drive to the store was quick and Percy knew it by heart. He got out of his car and checked himself in the side mirror. He realized he had forgotten to tame his hair. Oh well, it didn't help anyway. "Morning everyone!" he called as he walked into the store. He heard an unenthusiastic reply. Walking over to his station, register 5, he grabbed his daily roll of stickers for kids. He flipped his light on and a few people stepped into his line. Personally, he had been annoyed with clerks when he was little. The fake smiles and repetitive greetings never fooled him. That was why when a customer came to him, he tried to make polite conversation, and be himself.

When he'd glanced at the clock again, he'd been there an hour. Just then the doors slid open and a blonde girl walked in. She squinted, like the light hurt her eyes, looking for something.

"Morning." A woman had slid into line.

"Hello. How are you today? Personally I think it's a little chillier of a morning."

"I'm very well actually. If you want to know, this is for my daughter, she will be released from the hospital this morning. She broke her whole arm riding her bike!"

Percy looked down at the teddy bear he was putting into a bag. It was soft with white fur. He grinned, remembering a similar experience he'd had at that age.

"I think it's perfect!" He rang up the price, the woman smiled.

"That'll be $4.99 ma'am."

She paid him, wished him a thank you, and left with her purchase. His line had gotten longer, and at the end of it he noticed the blonde he had seen earlier.

"Some of you can go over to station 4, Grandma Jane doesn't bite."

Scattered laughter let two people move over. Now the blonde was behind only one customer.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I couldn't find anyone to help. I really just need to use the restroom."

Percy chuckled, "I'm sorry about that." He pointed back where she had come from, "It's just behind isle 10."

The lady walked away quickly.

She was next. Percy could tell there was something different wrong. She looked a little pale. He glanced at her purchases and saw she had coke. That was his favorite drink! He was practically in love with her already. "Where'd that come from?" he asked himself.

"Oh yeah that's a good deal. Coke tastes the best in the morning, I think." he said, noticing his voice was a little higher than usual. She started, apparently not noticing it was her turn. That was when he saw her eyes. They were a stormy fierce gray, with hints of icey blue. They held a strength behind them that Percy found scarily attractive. Even though she looked probably about as bad as she felt, Percy decided she was beautiful. Beautiful? He'd only met the girl three seconds ago. But in those three second, Percy Jackson had made a decision that had nothing to do with fate. He decided he wanted to get to know this girl.

"Mm-hm." she replied, snapping Percy back to the task at hand.

"You should try the cherry, it's actually really good." He said.

"Okay."

Alright, what could be her problem? No one was this stubborn. Percy pulled Advil out of the basket.

"Ah, headache." he thought, but said, "What's your favorite kind?"

She snapped at him, "would you just check me out."

Percy couldn't help himself, he let a smile pull at the crevasses of his mouth. The girl smacked herself. "Ouch." Percy thought, "that could not have felt good."

"I'm sorry. I have a giant migraine and I'm not thinking very clearly."

He decided to have a little fun. "No, no. It's fine. I would be happy to check you out, except I already have." he winked. "You winked?!" Percy hit himself inside his head. "Man, pull yourself together. What is this girl doing to you?" he thought.

She must have gotten annoyed because she didn't reply.

"That will be $17.39."

"Hmm? Oh, here."

She gave him the money and he printed the receipt and decided to do one more thing. This girl was something else. He wrote her a little note and circled her savings.

"You saved $3.61, come again soon! Hope the coke helps."

She scowled at him, took her stuff and the receipt and stomped out of the store.

"You always catch the feisty ones." Grandma Jane said, ruffling my hair.

"I guess I do." Percy said watching the girl walk to her car. He saw he pause to look down at something. She spun around and seemed to be glaring at the store. Percy ducked his head, but he was smiling.

"Guess she found my note." he thought. He heard a door slam and decided it was safe enough to come out from behind the counter.

"Well that sounds interesting." Percy turned around to find a man at his register. He might've blushed a little bit.

"Yeah, I think I did just make things interesting."